Baked Pineapple

Thanksgiving is next week, and if you're like me, you're already planning out your menu. Maybe you're going to make your grandmother's famous dressing or you're trolling the internet for a new pumpkin dessert to try. Maybe you're gonna order it, have it precooked and then delivered to your house Thanksgiving Day (if that's so, this post is not for you! 😋). Maybe you plan to skip the traditional feast and opt for something a little lower-key...like pizza. (We did that one year, and it was fun!)

But if you're in that first group, and you're still trying to figure out the side dishes to accompany your turkey feast, may I humbly submit baked pineapple?

Baked. Pineapple. Your first thought may be "Oh, gross! What on earth?!?" But trust me, it's really not. Hot pineapple might seem weird until you remember that people put it on pizza with ham all the time. And you know that sweet and salty combination that is soooo good everyone loves it? THAT is the essence of baked pineapple! Sweet, salty, melt-in-your-mouth pineapple with a crunchy, cheesy cracker crust--trust me, it's amazing. A-maze-ing.

I don't really know where this recipe originally comes from. I learned it from my husband's family, and it has since become a favorite of mine as well. Who knows where they first learned it? But I'm so glad they did!

You drain your canned pineapple and spread it in an 8x8" casserole dish. Layer a combination of self-rising flour and sugar, then crushed Ritz crackers, then butter, and finally cheese over the pineapple, then pop in the oven and bake for roughly 40 minutes. That's it! Delicious and easy! What more could you want in the middle of all the Thanksgiving rush?  

You'll thank me later.

Right now, I have some deliciously hot pineapple to eat. 😁